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13 Mar
9:34pm, 13 Mar 2024
22,424 posts
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Sharkie
I think the bashing is not so much of the vets themselves, more the big companies that are forming monopolies and creaming off the profits.
Also - yes genetics, but different breeds are susceptible to different problems. 'Mongrels' as they used to be known, probably still the hardiest!
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13 Mar
9:37pm, 13 Mar 2024
3,309 posts
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Big_G
Just a note about AHC for travel, but I think some vets charge a lot because they basically don’t really want to offer the service. If they’re not geared up for it, the paperwork takes a long time to do. My OH did it for a friend as a one off and it took her around 3hrs. And even then OH was stressed in case it was wrong (it wasn’t wrong). I think vets who are set up for it near a port can do it cheaper as they’re doing them all the time, and for some that’s basically all they do in peak times.
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13 Mar
9:38pm, 13 Mar 2024
3,310 posts
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Big_G
Sharkie, I’m not so sure about that. Vets get verbally and sometimes physically abused in person.
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13 Mar
9:42pm, 13 Mar 2024
22,425 posts
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Sharkie
That's terrible Big G. We might not have needed them very often but our vets and vet nurses were all really lovely and super helpful and knowledgeable.
(Bar one male vet who was scared of GSDs. TRUE!)
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13 Mar
10:06pm, 13 Mar 2024
3,311 posts
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Big_G
From a guardian article.
“Bassanello tells me she never needed to call the police to work before the pandemic. “I’ve received direct threats myself, been called the C-word at 1am and I know of cases where the police have had to become involved due to harassment on social media,” she says. “There have been clients where we are advised to call the police should they show up to the clinic, but we’re still professionally obliged to treat their animal.”
For Melanie, dealing with abuse during an already challenging time was “absolutely disheartening”, and she is far from alone in feeling disillusioned. One vet, who qualified in 2014, told me she stepped back from the front line after spending most of the pandemic working 50-hour weeks in a practice that was “chronically understaffed”. Others described the dismay at falling out of love with a job they’d always wanted to do. “I worked my backside off to become a vet,” said one. “Now I don’t know why.” Many vets are throwing in the towel shortly after qualifying. There has already been a significant drop in new joiners and nearly half of those to quit have been working for less than five years, according to RCVS, which held an urgent summit on recruitment and retention in late 2021
”
My OH volunteers for a charity called Vet Life on the side and there are all kinds of stories apparently (although my OH only works on cases where vets may need personal financial help).
In other news, a few months ago I mentioned OH was very worried about the prospect of having to euthanise healthy (and safe) XL Bullies. However, certainly locally, police and vets seem to be taking a pragmatic approach. For example, some owners may have missed the deadline and police seem to be cutting them some slack, and are concentrating resources on genuinely dangerous dogs, or dangerous owners of dogs. She had one dog in that was a lovely dog, but the owner was a dangerous individual. The police had no option but to ask the dog to be euthanised, because they didn’t want that dog going back to that individual, and the dogs can’t be rehomed now. The police and OH were upset about the situation as the dog was lovely, but in the circumstances all agreed it was the right thing.
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13 Mar
10:18pm, 13 Mar 2024
22,426 posts
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Sharkie
That must have been so sad and difficult for your OH and the police. So many dogs (and probably other pets) bought during Covid and then found to be too much trouble. Really sad.
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14 Mar
7:19am, 14 Mar 2024
3,488 posts
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PenW
Just a note about AHC for travel, but I think some vets charge a lot because they basically don’t really want to offer the service.
I think that’s very true. Albie’s first AHC cost 193 last September and then 260 inn December! Thankfully we don’t need them anymore as he now has a French passport - which cost 10 euros plus a vet visit at around 13 euros and is valid as long as there is space in it. The only downside is he has to have his rabies boosters in France now but that is probably cheaper there also.
Albie has had 3 bouts of steroid responsive meningitis arteritis which has cost lots (mostly covered by insurance) and one episode that wasn’t diagnosed but still needed expensive tests. It would have been several thousand pounds without insurance but now of course the insurance does cost a lot. I’m hoping he doesn’t have any more relapses!
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14 Mar
7:20am, 14 Mar 2024
3,489 posts
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PenW
I spoke to one of the vets not issuing AHC and she said it was so ridiculous that the pet passports were no longer valid as that was so much easier for everyone.
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14 Mar
7:26am, 14 Mar 2024
39,826 posts
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LazyDaisy
That's awful. 
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14 Mar
7:28am, 14 Mar 2024
39,827 posts
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LazyDaisy
(Sorry, bit slow responding to Big_G's post from last night!!)0
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